Strings of decorative lamps have been used for festive occasions to decorate Christmas trees on Christmas Day. The random arrangement of the decorative lamps, being miniature sources of light, contributes, to sponsoring joyful events. With the advent of a new generation of light emitting diodes (LEDs), a large variety of decorative lamps have been made available to replace the older, inefficient tungsten bulbs.
By still further miniaturizing the individual LEDs and placing a group of these light emitting diodes in a decorative transparent protective housing, a similar effect of creating a celebratory mood may be attained.
Prior art strings of individual lamps using LEDs can provide a joyful effect for a festive occasion, but may be generally limited to provide illumination for a particular number of days, such as at Christmas time. Still other prior art LED lamps provide concentrated sources of illumination primarily as replacements for tungsten lamps and are not necessarily suitable for a festive and joyful occasion.
The following prior art discloses the various aspects in the design of a decorative, festive LED lamp.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,502, granted Feb. 17, 1998, to J. Tseng, discloses a decorative lamp for festive occasions, whose lamp base can enclose not only wires of a regular diameter, but also wires with a larger diameter, is disclosed. The decorative lamps for festive occasions includes a lamp head having a bulb and a pair of first wires and a second wire extending therefrom. A hollow lamp base receives the lamp head and secures the first and second wires of the lamp head. The lamp base has defined on a lower portion of an inner wall thereof a pair of first recesses at one side for receiving the first wires and a second recess opposed to the first recesses for receiving said second wire, such that the first and second wires are arranged in a tri-lobic disposition. The decorative lamp for festive occasions further includes a block mounted within the hollow lamp base for preventing water from entering the lamp base and so providing a short circuit.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,227,679, granted May 8, 2001, to Z. K. Zhang, et al., discloses an LED light bulb for use as an indicator or warning lamp comprises a support structure; a generally circular and planar disc attached to the support structure, wherein the disc is a printed circuit board and is perpendicularly oriented with respect to the structure. A plurality of interconnected LEDs are concentrically mounted on the disc wherein a portion of the LEDs are outwardly splayed at an angle away from a central axis point of the disc so that the LEDs collectively transmit light having about the same light intensity at viewing angles from about 0 degrees to about 360 degrees about the disc. The LED light bulb has circuitry means for providing a current to the LEDs.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,659,632, granted Dec. 9, 2003, to H. Chen, discloses a light emitting diode lamp includes multiple LED members, a plane circuit board, an LED fixing cover, a circuit board mounting seat, a drive circuit, and an LED lamp base having a bulb copper head. The plane circuit board is initially cut to form a multiple-ring shape. Then, the multiple LED members are arranged and soldered on the plane circuit board. Then, the circuit board mounting seat is mounted on the bottom of the plane circuit board, thereby forming a spatial shape having a convex arcuate face. Then, the plane circuit board and the circuit board mounting seat are mounted in the LED lamp base. Then, the LED fixing cover is mounted on the LED lamp base, thereby assembling the light emitting diode lamp that may be available for the present filament bulb seat.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,709,132, granted Mar. 23, 2004, to K. Ishibashi, discloses an LED bulb having a higher distribution of luminous intensity that is close to those of tungsten bulbs. Of which, the problem in directivity of the prior art LED bulbs has been solved while maintaining the advantages of an LED, that is, a long life and an energy saving characteristic.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,948,829, granted Sep. 27, 2005, to A. Verdes, et al., discloses a light emitting diode (LED) light bulb that includes plural individual elements as sub-assembly elements of the overall light bulb. Different sub-assembly elements of a lens, a LED printed circuit board, a housing also functioning as a heat sink, a lower housing, and other individual sub-assembly components are utilized. The LED printed circuit board sub-assembly containing the LEDs can also be provided relatively close to a base.
What is needed is a modular, decorative festive LED lamp that is comprised of a plurality of sources of illumination, connected serially, positioned in a random spatially spheroidal arrangement, when viewed, that is helically wound, and enclosed in a transparent protective container. In this regard, the present invention fulfils this need.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a modular, decorative festive LED lamp, whose plurality of colored sources of illumination is a helically wound serial string of light emitting diodes that when viewed, appear to be positioned or arrayed in a random spatially spheroidal arrangement.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a modular, decorative festive LED lamp, whose plurality of colored sources of illumination is a helically wound serial string of LED bulbs that when viewed, appear to be positioned in a random spatially spheroidal arrangement, the string spirally descending about the centralized connection posts.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a modular, decorative festive LED lamp, whose plurality of colored sources of illumination is a helically wound serial string of LED bulbs that when viewed, appear to be positioned in a random spatially spheroidal arrangement, the string spirally descending about the centralized connection posts, brilliantly displaying the plurality of LEDS in a single, colorful, protective lamp housing.
It is still yet another object of the present invention to provide a modular, decorative festive LED lamp, comprising a plurality of a helically wound serial string of colored light emitting diodes, the energy saving lamp operating efficiently at 1 watt or less to produce an illuminance greater than 25,000 millicandela (mcd), (i.e. 10 LEDs), when contained in a transparent envelope.
Yet still another object of the present invention is to provide a modular, decorative festive LED lamp, comprising a plurality of a helically wound serial string of colored light emitting diodes, the light emitting diodes being current limited to prevent thermal runaway.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a modular, decorative festive LED lamp, comprising a plurality of a helically wound serial string of colored light emitting diodes, the light emitting diodes being enclosed in a protective cover to isolate the diodes from coming in contact with ones hands or with a flammable material, in the event these diodes should experience a high temperature.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a circuit that will permit the plurality of serially connected light emitting diodes to be operated in a rapid flashing or frequent starting mode.
A final object of the present invention is to provide a circuit that will permit the plurality of serially connected light emitting diodes to be operated at an increased frequency to reduce the flicker emanating from the LEDs.
A better understanding of these and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be best understood from the following description of the specific embodiments when read and understood in connection with the accompanying drawings.